Kabbani, Rana

Rana Kabbani (Arabic: رنا قباني; born 1958) is a British Syrian cultural historian, writer and broadcaster who lives in London. Most famous for her works Imperial Fictions: Europe's Myths of the Orient (1994) and Letter to Christendom (1989), she has also edited and translated works in Arabic and English. She has written for Spare Rib, the International Herald Tribune, The New Statesman, The Guardian, British Vogue, The Independent, Al Quds al Arabi, and Islamica. She has made and contributed to many television and radio programmes for the BBC, on subjects such as literature, music, minority rights, Islamic culture, food, feminism, women's rights, painting, and British politics. She has spoken out against Islamophobia, defining its historic roots in colonialism. Her famous relatives include Abu Khalil Qabbani, her uncle Nizar Qabbani, her father Sabah Qabbani, and her daughter Yasmine Seale whose father is Patrick Seale.